Will TiVo automatically connect via phone if network is down?

My dad's home network is down, and it looks like it will be a while before I can help him fix it. TiVo is therefore running out of guide data. If I tell him to plug in the phone line, will TiVo automatically use the phone after detecting the network is down? Or does he need to explicitly tell TiVo to switch over to using the phone?

I'd just rather not tell TiVo to use the phone, and then have to reconfigure it for the network later. If it would be smart enough to use the phone line as backup automatically, that would be great. Then it would switch back to the network automatically once it's back up.

People might not want their Tivo using the phone at it's own discretion for various reasons, so it won't do it automatically. It's no big deal to switch though, you just select "use phone instead" then "use network instead" when you want to switch back. You won't have to "reconfigure" the network settings.

I figured TiVo would assume that if the phone was plugged in that it was OK to use (and if you didn't want it used then you wouldn't have it plugged in). But thanks for confirming that switching is simple. I'll just have him do that.

Plugged in phone lines may be plugged in just because they're too inaccessible to unplug, then re-plug if you ever decide you want to use them, then unplug again when you're done with them. It's easier to leave them connected.

It would be nice though if after a few days of failed network connections Tivo threw up a PTCM asking if you wanted to switch to the phone but keep trying the network and switch back when it became available.

I think it was mostly a matter of spending resources on getting guided setup to work over the network and not spending any time on writing up the code to fail over or else put up a message (which is a good suggestion)

TiVo does put a messgae though on low guide data, wonder what the verbiage of it is?

I found this annoying when I figured it out... you'd think there would be an option "use phone if network is unavailable."

The big issue is that if I'm out of town and the network goes down, I can't tell Tivo to do something remotely.

Click to expand...

This is an excellent point and something I'd wish TiVo would address in some future upgrade. It's probably not that high on my or most people's priority or "wish" list, but when you really need it, it would be not only a nice feature to have, but a crucially important feature as well. It's like a spare tire on your car: 99% of the time you forget that it even exists, but if you suddenly need it, you really need it!

There's no reason why we can't have a "use phone if network is unavailable" option in the "Phone & Network Setup" screen. Anything TiVo can do to give us more options which make TiVo more reliable and useful for the user, should be considered.

Another "nice to have" but not as important feature for the phone line would be an onscreen TiVo caller id notification when an incoming call comes in. IIRC, some of the hacked TiVo boxes have this feature, but TiVo has never bothered to add it as an official feature. Nice to have, but obviously not a high priority.

These would both be nice features to have even if you used your network for making connections to the TiVo mothership. If you've got both a phone line and ethernet/WiFi/network line plugged in, might as well be able to use both to their maximum capacity and usefulness.

Another "nice to have" but not as important feature for the phone line would be an onscreen TiVo caller id notification when an incoming call comes in. IIRC, some of the hacked TiVo boxes have this feature, but TiVo has never bothered to add it as an official feature. Nice to have, but obviously not a high priority.

Click to expand...

They would have to put in a more expensive modem to have the firmware for caller ID but I would find that a VERY useful feature as well. Not sure how many more TiVo DVRs it would sell though which is what any new feature has to add to in order to have ROI for TiVo inc.